As scientists, we write to support U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson's correct view on natural factors of climate change as reported in the Journal Sentinel (Page 1B, Aug. 17; Page 1A, Aug. 21).

This is not a debate about politics or about a belief system. Objective science informs us that the so-called consensus viewpoints offered by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about man-made carbon dioxide being the dominant factor of climate change is largely a political conclusion and not likely a scientifically correct one.

If global temperatures are supposedly affected by rapidly rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations but the warming has ceased over at least the last decade, then something more important than atmospheric CO2 must be driving climate change. This is why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Aug. 13 that "greenhouse gas forcing fails to explain the 2010 heat wave over western Russia."

We wish to emphasize that many peer-reviewed publications exist that support the minimal role of atmospheric CO2 as a cause for the weather and climate that we experience. Extremist views only serve to induce panic about climate change, and the unwillingness to address the real science only leads to spurious claims that "the science is settled."

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WTAQ) - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson blames sunspots for global warming. And the Oshkosh businessman says it would be a “fool’s errand” to try and fix it.

Johnson told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editors Monday that a strong economy is the best way to preserve the environment – and he does not agree with any government spending to try and address it.

Last month, Johnson told an interviewer that the idea of man-made climate change is “lunacy,” and those who believe in it are, “crazy.”

As recently as last month, there was talk in Washington about getting a climate change bill pushed through the U.S. Senate before the November elections. Johnson is the GOP’s endorsed candidate to run against 18-year Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold.

Feingold’s camp said Johnson was out of touch with reality on global warming – and Feingold himself says most people think man has had something to do with it.